6/13/17

Recently, Congress once again extended a ban on the Department of Justice using its funds to prosecute legitimate medical marijuana operations in states that have legalized the drug for medicinal purposes. However, Attorney General Jeff Sessions has asked lawmakers to end this prohibition and allow his prosecutors to go after medical cannabis.

“I believe it would be unwise for Congress to restrict the Department to fund particular prosecutions, particularly in the midst of an historic drug epidemic and potentially long-term uptick in violent crime,” read the letter. “The Department must be in a position to use all laws available to combat the transnational drug organizations and dangerous drug traffickers who threaten American lives.”

However, the Ninth Circuit ruling explicitly allows the DOJ to prosecute cases where suspects “do not strictly comply with all state-law conditions regarding the use, distribution, possession, and cultivation of medical marijuana.” Additionally, the Colorado case he cites in the letter was a joint effort of state law enforcement and the federal Drug Enforcement Administration — a division of the DOJ.

Though President Trump repeatedly claimed during the election campaign that he was in favor of medical marijuana, the issue has become cloudier in the months since his inauguration.

When President Trump signed the 2017 appropriations bill into law, he included a signing statement where he said he will treat the marijuana prosecution “provision consistently with my constitutional responsibility to take care that the laws be faithfully executed.”